tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85618830211048715372014-10-02T23:44:57.187-07:00PASS THE POPCORNMovie Views, Reviews, and Previews from Writer Len WeinLen Weinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619143398147167868noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8561883021104871537.post-79359003576255708882007-05-30T16:42:00.001-07:002007-05-30T16:42:56.265-07:00Pirate AddendumI neglected to mention earlier in my review of <span style="font-style: italic;">Pirates 3</span> that, despite the almost-certain urging of your bladder to visit a restroom, it's well worth your while to sit through the movie's copious end credits. As with the first two films, there is an extra scene at the end after the credits that adds a great deal to the story.<br /><br />Just thought you'd want to know.Len Weinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619143398147167868noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8561883021104871537.post-49630814012694572112007-05-30T16:40:00.001-07:002007-05-30T16:42:01.958-07:00This Film is Rated "ARRRRH"<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">AVAST, MATEYS! THAR BE SPOILERS APLENTY AHEAD! </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">YE'VE BEEN DULY WARNED!</span><br /></div><br />Several years ago, when my lovely wife <span style="font-weight: bold;">Christine</span> and I attended the Disneyland premiere of <span style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl</span>, I thought it was the best pirate movie I'd seen since Burt Lancaster's classic <span style="font-style: italic;">The</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Crimson Pirate</span> decades before. Granted, intervening films like <span style="font-style: italic;">Pirates, Swashbuckler</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Cutthroat Island</span> made that a comparatively easy thing to accomplish, but still...<br /><br />In <span style="font-style: italic;">PotC:tCofBP</span>, swords were crossed, swashes were buckled, and in Captain Jack Sparrow, the always-brilliant <span style="font-weight: bold;">Johnny Depp</span> created a character unique in movie history. Granted, I was already inclined to like the film since it was being written by friends of mine and, thanks to their generosity, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Marv Wolfman</span> and I had spent a day on the set, meeting <span style="font-weight: bold;">Keira Knightly, Orlando Bloom</span>, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Geoffrey Rush</span>, and watching the crew shoot the climactic sword fight in the treasure cave. In fact, I still have a few "gold" doubloons from the cave floor laying around the house somewhere as a memento. But I also like to think I'm enough of a professional that I won't let personal allegiances interfere with me giving an honest review.<br /><br />In point of fact, I did not particularly like the first sequel, <span style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest</span>. Although I had fun much of the time while I was watching it, in the end I felt it was overlong, left far too many plot threads dangling (the problem with most middle films of a trilogy), and turned Jack Sparrow from a charming rogue to a repugnant, self-serving thug. While I know that the writers had always intended Jack to be totally amoral, it doesn't mean I have to like it.<br /><br />I guess that's why I thrilled to report that I absolutely LOVED the latest (and, theoretically, final) chapter in the saga, <span style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the Caribbean: at World's End</span>. While it is by far the longest of the three films, clocking in at a little under three hours, the time seemed to fly past. There was none of the usual squirming and fidgeting that occurs when you're becoming impatient, waiting for the film to end. Frankly, I'd have been just as happy had the film never ended. The entire cast of the previous film was back and, wisely, all new characters added were in service to the half-dozen different stories they already had in place and needed to resolve. The two standout new characters were, of course, the incomparable <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chow Yun-Fat</span> as the leader of the Singapore pirates and the incomprehensible <span style="font-weight: bold;">Keith Richards</span> as Jack Sparrow's pirate dad. While still self-serving, Depp's Jack Sparrow was once again the charming rogue and, as Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, Orlando and Keira took their characters to whole new levels of romance and butt-kicking. As the monstrous Davy Jones, the always-extraordinary <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bill Nighy</span> was at turns terrifying and heartbreaking.<br /><br />In many ways, though, what impressed me most about <span style="font-style: italic;">PotC:aWE </span>was the skill with which screenwriters <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ted Elliott</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Terry Rossio</span> managed to resolve all the many dangling plotlines left over from the previous films, and the often-ingenious ways in which they did so. Everything ends satisfactorily in <span style="font-style: italic;">PotC:aWE</span>, though not necessarily in the way one might expect. There is nothing that I can think of that hasn't been addressed and resolved. And that, in itself, is a major magic trick. In fact, the only thing I can think of that could have improved the film is that every member of the audience be given a Tia Dalma-to-English Dictionary, as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Naomie Harris</span>'s Caribbean accent couldn't be cut with a sharp new machete.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the Caribbean: at World's End</span> certainly will not need my recommendation to break buckets of box office records this weekend, but I'm giving it anyway. Go see it. You won't be sorry you did.Len Weinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619143398147167868noreply@blogger.com0